'

thanks mr Frank,

Yes, the trailer thing is a puzzle.. I think I'll be putting shockies on my boat trailer too.

Little update.. big Job.

In order to get the manual T56 speed in, I have many steps to take. This weekend I took one of them.

Had a fairmont Ghia auto pedal box, and pulled the clutch mech off a manual pedal box and put it onto the Ghia pedal box, wired the plug for the clutch in and put it in the car. There is now a clutch pedal hidden under my carpet waiting to be connected to something. (I used the Ghia pedal box as it has pedal electric pedal height adjustment, The clutch pedal doesn't yet, but it will, I've got spares of both so I just need to combine the two so I have the clutch pedal go up and down too, but that can wait)

Took longer than I expected as a ton of wiring was using the clutch grommet to get in/out of the engine bay and I had to drill and grommet a new hole to serve that function and cut/solder about 60 (non factory) wires. Neatened everything up under there while I was at it and replaced my broken fuse box (the usual bonnet cable attach point) with a BF Fairmont fuse-box I had here that wasn't broken.

I've decided that all electrical mods to this car either have to be factory, or have to look and function as factory.. (but if factory is an option I'll do it that way first) So when adding the clutch/cruise control switch to the ghia loom I did it via pin swapping on the plugs to keep it all factory and without joins)

Since I had the brake booster out anyway, I decided to take the master cyl out too and replace both with a FG versions there of.. the FG booster is a tiny bit smaller and about a kilo lighter (because "weight reduction bro!") seems to work better too, though I suspect there was something wrong with the BA one as every now and then I'd have no power assistance, hopefully that problem has gone now too.

The FG master cylinder fit fine too.. but I had to use an FG brake line from the master cyl to the ABS module as the rear outlet on the FG unit is the same size as the front one. (but different on BA's and BF's) Also, the float sensor plug is different but that's not a biggie either. Once I'd gotten the other line it, it worked fine. The brake system has very little original gear left, on the front is GT calipers with big RDA slotted/dimpled rotors and the rear has Territory rears with the same big RDA rotors.. Braided lines throughout and now FG booster and master cyl. Once the BF2 ABS is in, (because I want ESP) almost nothing of the original system will be there anymore. I even have all the BF brake lines if I need them. (but since I have traction control I already have dual rear brake lines so I shouldn't need to change the long rear ones.)

While I had the column out, I put the steering wheel angle sensor on my column. Since my column is already FG, I put the FG angle sensor in too, but other than colour I don't see any difference to the BF version of the same. I don't know if I have a yaw sensor yet, there should be one on the BF dash loom, but will have to verify. I have two FG dash loom halves, basically everything the drivers side of the ICC.. and I have FG leather wheel with the FG wheel controls, smaller airbag, and the rest of the kit at home too.. so when time permits, I'll map the wiring and put the FG wheel and controls onto the FG column already in the car (which currently has ba/bf wheel/controls on it.) The FG wheel is nicer I think, later on I'll get a flashy one, but for now the XR one is nice enough)

It's slowly getting to the point where there isn't much BA left in my BA. (which is good, because most of the BA left needs to go, so I can get my BF PCM in and working, (and converted to manual). So the engine loom, alternator, front loom and dash loom all need to go before I'm done.. (I already have all the looms here ready to go.. just need to find the time to get them all in.) I think I can use my VCM to convert a BF PCM I have here to BF2 Typhoon as they are the same hardware version and I can use built as data to do it. (I think) will know soon enough.




Oh yeah, I also finally got around to putting my braided Turbo oil line in.. The kit I bought on ebay didn't have the right fittings so I ended up going to enzed and getting the correct fittings from them.

Lastly, Supercheap did a special on trailer ramps, so I went to buy some, they had sold out but sold me the heavier duty ones for the same price (50 bucks) so I cut them up and welded them to my car ramps. This is the end result:


Very happy as for the first time I can just drive my car up the ramps, forwards or back without finding bits of wood and bricks to stop me destroying my bumpers from the too steep ramp.

This was the first test.. very happy with the result.


Considering my car is standard height.. I'm surprised that other folks are not having issues with their ramps.

Looking good there frank, i have the same trouble with Ramps, have a set of 4 none fit under the car at all, well maybe they would if i took the front bumper off.
I have done a bit of a update to my build thread still more to do as always.

Rob

Another update..

Popped the plastic side tank on my radiator.. annoying because the core on my radiator looks brand new.. not a mark on it. got a price for a new side tank fitted and a clean/pressure test and it was a little over 200..

So I bought this instead. Figured I might as well bling it up with some fancy hoses while I was at it... (only adds 40 bucks to the price and having all new hoses might be worth it in the long run.)



This radiator is 50mm core, and has welded aluminium end caps, so no more popping or snapping bits off of them. (at least not easily). Factory XR6T/XR8 radiator core is 26mm and standard factory i6 BA/BF radiator seems around 12mm.

I'm driving around at the moment with an FG single core radiator in the car.. is a loaner to tide me over till this one arrives. Temp sits lower than it does with my old dual core which makes me wonder if it wasn't blocked somehow.. annoying because I've always filled it with the good stuff.

While I'm swapping this over, I'm hoping to have the time to rip out the intercooler and turn the turbo housing around so it's pointing upwards and duct it straight to the intake for now. (liquid injected LPG == cooling effect).. and the following weekend I'll start fitting the water to air stuff. (need to surround that puppy in a ton of heat shielding as it'll be sitting not far above the exhaust manifold and turbo, which also have sheilding but still get d@mned hot.

I've been wondering how I was going to make all of this look "professional" and factory-ish. (I don't need it to look factory as such, just so it looks like it "could have" been factory. So I was at repco the other day and there upside down on the ground was the front cover off the front tow hitch from a range rover sport trimmed in black and what looks very much like lightning strike silver.

It's the bit under the bumper in the middle.. I suspect cut down and put length ways it might look ok as a cover for the whole exhaust side of and rocker cover of the engine.. will see.. it's big enough and it looks mint. (I tried to find the owner, but the yard was mostly empty and it might have been there for ages as the underside looked fairly ordinary and it was in the gutter in front of the car parks. )..

It might look mint on the car.. will see.

New RIMS on the car.. looking mint if I do say so. Really liking the way the car is starting to look.
The two tone Charcoal grey and Lightning strike work well together i think. We have the rims, the side skirt inserts, the back spoiler, under the rear skirt lip, the bonnet hump writing and soon the typhoon front bar center all Ford gun metal grey and everything else lightning strike. The BA GT brake caliper looks great with these rims.. had to shave a mm off the support bar as it was just touching the inside of the rim spokes.. fine now.

235/40/18's on the front and 245/40/18's on the back.

More toys!

I just got a good deal on an Xforce 3.5 inch stainless exhaust for a XR6T, 4" dump pipe to exhaust, including 3.5 inch high flow cat and 3.5 inch piping thoughout.... retails for just under 2 grand.. got it for 500.

Also picked up a factory electric sunroof.. basically the entire roof of the doner car and all wiring and gutter hoses etc.

And I got a low KM BF3 engine, it's build date is actually after the FG came out by a few months.. has tons of FG stuff in the car and the motor basically looks like an FG variant with a BF sump and BBM.. the air con and all the other odds and ends look identical to FG and not to the BF that was beside it..

It's going to be the base for my new engine.. I figured since I'm upgrading all the wiring to BF. I might as well do the engine too. So in addition to this engine, I have picked up some Plazmaman heavy duty valve springs. Will start looking around for a good deal for forged pistons and some HD conrods.. might as well go a little nuts if I'm going to build an engine.

Got a machine shop 50 metres from my house so that is handy. Don't think I need to worry about timing chain and stuff as this engine has bugg@r all KM on it anyway, I shouldn't even need to bore out or oversize as I'd be surprised if there is any lip on the bores.

Bits have arrived!

New double the HD turbo radiator sized radiator with welded alloy end tanks and silicon hoses.


pic of the hoses...


BF3 engine and PCM.


3.5 inch Xforce exhaust with 4 inch dump.


I have a sunroof off a falcon too.. (actually I have the whole roof of a falcon as I cut it off last weekend with a 9 inch angle grinder.

Also thanks to Robert-au I now have the 4 inch anti surge turbo housing I wanted too.


a ton of stuff to find time to fit to the car.. not to mention the water to air and associated kit.

What size socket was it to remove the fitting out the block? I've read 22,24,25 and 26mm somewhere! i have had my oil line sitting here for months waiting to be fitted.

Hopefully my kit does have the right fittings although i did have to go get some copper washers (hopefully they are right), think i got the genuine earls kit so it should i guess.

If you are replacing it anyway, just cut the pipe and spin it around.. only have to be careful if you plan on putting the old pipe back. I'm fairly sure it was 24mm. Since I didn't care if the pipe got twisted, I just kept unbolting things until I got down to the block. Also I have a sandwich plate so I simplied my layout by using the old outlet for just the turbo, everything else is plugged into the sandwich plate (that runs to the oil cooler).

Little update.. I loath the BA handbrake.. it's woeful and squeals all the time and it's not very strong and the cable stretches etc etc.

So what to do about it? At first I though i'd see how they did it on the all disk XF brakes.. but then I found an alternative... So I just bought this:

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I can make that fit in the existing location and hook it into the rear brake lines and then take my disks off and throw the factory handbrake shoes and mech away for ever.... I'll have a way better handbrake (territory calipers and slotted rotors for same with braided lines and EBC pads) and since it's using the rear brakes, which didn't squeal at all until I fixed the handbrake.. it should be silent too.

fingers crossed.

Any updates??!

Funny you should ask, was just thinking this morning that I should update my thread. Lots has happened actually.

Firstly, the 6 speed manual is in and working fine.

computer has been reflashed as a manual and returned to my engines specs. While I've been at it, I've also put the black Fairmont Ghia ICC and plastics, and wood-grain inserts and steering wheel in.. it looks mint! Car goes like sh!t off a shovel too. Also, they had a special on bluetooth (audio and handsfree) kenwood deck at supercheap (was like a hundred bucks) so I made up an active noise suppressor and wired the output RCA's of the new kenwood into the AUX in on the factory system. Now I have full wireless bluetooth audio and handsfree.. and the name of caller etc comes up on the screen. Plus chopped up a bunch of cradles off the net and a wireless charger and built a phone cradle that I can put my phone in without removing the flip cover that then chargers wirelessly and also connects to the car wirelessly. No plugging anything in at all, works great.

I also scored some Bilstein shockies.


The new bumper I'm about to paint:

Aftermarket phoon bumper.

For the rear I have a geniune BA GT bumber.


Both will be done in the same grey/silver colour scheme as the rest of the car.
After the manual, I realised that the handbrake which has always sucked wouldn't no longer suffice. So the back came up and a new RDA set of shoes and the updated retaining springs got fitted. (nobody had put the updated ones in before, so the handbrake worked, but squeaked, didn't work but didn't squeek... and occasionally it didn't work and squeeked anyway.) so for the first time since I got the car I have a mostly functional handbrake. took the opportunity to repaint my territory rear calipers with the same colour as the BA GT front calipers. (PBR red not FPV blue)


Lastly a couple of pretty shots of the car.

This one is quite old.. but I really love the way the light reflects of the car. (mags and rear spoiler are both different since this was taken)

\

oh, I'm on "double or nothing" now too.. so I bought a Valentine one Radar detector with both the bluetooth adator and the remote display. They are legal over here so why not. none of my speeding fines a for more than 11 kph over, and most are for 7kph over, but they do add up.

How safe are those jack stands on the ramps????

Very lucky that radars are legal in WA.

yeah.. put it this way.. I never got under the car. but it was more stable than it looked in the photo.

yes, they've been trying to make them illegal over here for ages but thus far it hasn't been successful.

coulda fooled me with the 'stable' part lol